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Lurcher Spot looks for a new home after cheating death twice

A dog whose life has been saved twice by Blue Cross after he was hit by a car is now in search for a new home where he can put his traumatic – and painful – past behind him.

Lurcher Spot came to our animal hospital in Victoria, central London, after fracturing his pelvis in the accident which happened in the week running up to Christmas.

The one-year-old initially started to show signs of improvement but he took a turn for the worse a little more than a week later.

Spot had suffered a serious internal bleed in his pelvis which caused severe bruising, an enormous swelling and pain in his leg.

The only way to save his life was with an emergency amputation.

Spot just before he boarded the animal ambulance taking him to our Suffolk rehoming centre.

Senior Vet Seb Prior said: “He was doing really well but we suspect that something happened to displace the pelvic fracture more and this caused a very significant bleed into his pelvis.”

“The blood then has to go somewhere and for Spot it drained into one of his legs causing a massive swelling, and a lot of pain,” explained Amanda Marrington, London Welfare Officer.

“We tried to control poor Spot's pain but even with lots of strong pain killers he was in a bad way. The only option was to amputate his leg to hopefully relieve him of the pain he was in.”

Our hospital team successfully operated on Spot to remove his back right leg, but his life was plunged into danger again soon after.

“The surgery was major and large blood clots were found in the leg – he'd lost so much blood that he needed a transfusion,” said Amanda.

Spot then had a plasma transfusion – the part of the blood which enables it to clot – to save his life for the second time.

The brave boy has recovered well from his ordeal and, two weeks after the surgery to amputate his leg, he headed to our Suffolk rehoming centre which will find him a new family to support him through his recovery.

Seb said: “It truly was an epic Blue Cross team effort to save Spot. I've never seen a pelvic bleed like that before. When they happen the animal usually bleeds to death and never gets as far as a hospital. We see a lot of dogs and cats with really severe pelvic fractures and I still can't remember any case like this before.”

Amanda added: “Spot has been a real fighter and has been helped by pretty much every department in the hospital – it was team work at its best.

“He has been doing really well and is so much happier. He is getting around on three legs just fine and continuing to recover from his fractured pelvis. He has received lots of love and care from the whole team who have all fallen in love with this soppy boy.”